2018 Hyundai Elantra
This year drew an ordinary 280 complaints for a Hyundai Elantra — the model's median is 260. What they were about is the unusual part: 8.9% of them mention paint, against 2.1% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 3 of the Hyundai Elantra, which began in 2017 and ran to 2020. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 280 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 260 |
| Involving a crash | 12 |
| Involving a fire | 7 |
| Recalls | 0 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 30.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- paint — 8.9% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the other years of this generation (4.3×). Owners wrote it as: paint, hood, peeling, roof.
- acceleration — 7.1% of this year's complaints, against 2.8% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: acceleration, pick.
- stolen — 6.4% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: stolen, easy, theft, car stolen.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
2018 White Hyundai Elantra. 9/21/2021 We first noticed the paint was peeling. The car had 39k miles on it. We proceeded to notify the dealership and they said it wasn’t covered. Over the last few months entire chunks of paint have been coming off of the hood a…
Paint is peeling off the hood in 2 very large, growing spots. Nothing has struck the hood, the paint is lifting and flaking off all on its own. The color is Pearl White.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Hyundai Elantra was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2018 Hyundai Elantra? What happened to yours?
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